Rising Free

As a Christian I've seen tons of Christian movies. This is one of the worst. The story's concept seems like it should have been a lot different. The story is executed poorly. The acting is cringeworthy. For some reason they are all taking as if its source-material is like a Shakespearean play. I was hoping for the best, but the movie just fell flat in almost every way possible. One of the only bright spots is probably the lead actress. She executes her lines well with awful dialogue that is written for her.

If you need hope in these dark times, then please do yourself a favor and watch this movie! A little slow at first, but the pacing is still really nice. It's got an excellent soundtrack, and it's beautifully directed and written.

First of all, there really needs to be more stories told like this! It is full of forgiveness, hope, and redemption. It has some good acting and a well written story. The definite highlight of the film was the cinematography. Great work to the director, Christian Johannesson! Working with all unknown actors is an achievement in itself. Worth the watch!

I gave this 3/10 just because of the photography and the beautiful sightseeing. Plot and most importantly dialogues couldn't keep up with the wonderful view.

Before I begin, it is so interesting to do some digging and realize how most ratings for this film (giving it a 9 or 10 star rating) comes from profiles who have joined IMDB for the exact same time, curiously having rated just one single title: Rising Free. Hmm...

Anyways. I tend to watch between 130~150 new movies every year (not counting those you rewatch from time to time), and because of that, I believe I got enough "cultural baggage" to compare titles, to say this one is just plain awful when it comes to character development and dialogue, not to mention poor acting to top it off. I actually found myself chuckling from time to time, facing the so many disconnected actions amongst characters and clichés.

I managed to watch 30 minutes before leaving the room. As you realize throughout the first 5~10 minutes just how robotic and artificial the actor's lines are, you simply cannot wash this feeling off, as the next scenes keeps coming. You'll naturally force yourself to analyse each new spoken line critically, because the coherence is so weird that the entire plot becomes dull, and you stop enjoying the story just to criticize the bad writing. There is no way around it, you cannot follow along, because things do not flow naturally.

This is the first work by the writer and director, so I hope my piece of criticism can help them evolve and get better. Guys, do some more study about the human nature. Behavior. How people acatually react to situations in our daily lives. If you've never been into this or that kind of situation, do some research on people who have, just don't go writing it off from the top of your mind, or else you'll risk getting flat characters with dubious dialogues like that.

I made an IMDB account just to review this movie. I will say that the scenery is indeed beautiful but the acting is just mediocre. However, the plot is a typical Hollywood display of indigenous people, one where the indigenous characters are white-washed and anglicized. There are not many movies that represent indigenous people and their lives, let alone ones that authentically depict the indigenous and their way of life. Once again we are shown another "white savior" movie where the white man, or the white family in this case, saves an indigenous person from a life of misery...a life of misery that was ironically created by the white man in the first place. What's more is that the main character is taken in by a white family who tells her that God is the answer to her pain and misery. So, authentic indigenous culture and religious beliefs are ignored and what's depicted is white-washed and Christianized in this movie. Ultimately the main character finds hope and solace in (the Christian) God. Once again we are shown another example of cultural genocide. I don't know what's worse... that native people are not represented in American culture or that when they are they are misrepresented. Either way, both are examples of the cultural genocide this country continues to commit against our natives peoples.